1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to Internet Protocol addresses. More particularly, the present invention relates to systems and methods of managing Internet Protocol addresses.
2. Background Art
Internet Protocol (IP) registries are nonprofit organizations established to administer and register Internet Protocol (IP) addresses to the public. An example of a regional IP registry is the American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN). One administrative function of an IP registry is to process requests for IP addresses from individuals or organizations and to allocate IP addresses to these individuals and organizations. In previous years, the number of IP addresses available for allocation to the public has been plentiful. Because of the exponential growth of the Internet and the associated demand for IP addresses in more recent years, however, IP addresses have become scarce resources.
An organization, such as a corporation or an Internet Service Provider, will often request a block of consecutive IP addresses from an IP registry, and the IP registry will typically allocate the block of consecutive IP addresses to the organization. A system administrator then allocates portions of the IP address block to networks or subnets within the computer network, which is often performed in a multi-tiered hierarchical manner. Additionally, the system administrator selects IP addresses in the address block and assigns the IP addresses to network hosts and host devices in the network or subnet.
Often, the system administrator of the computer network inefficiently allocates portions of the IP address block to networks and subnets in the computer network. In some situations, the system administrator over-allocates a portion of the IP address block to a network or subnet to avoid running out of IP addresses for the network or subnet. Consequently, many IP addresses allocated to the network or subnet may be unassigned. In other situations, the system administrator of the computer network can under-allocate a portion of the IP address block to a network or subnet. Consequently, additional IP addresses are needed after the IP addresses allocated to the network or subnet are assigned to network hosts and host devices. Although the system administrator of the computer network can reallocate the address blocks among the networks and subnets, such a reallocation is a tedious and time-consuming process.
The allocation of IP addresses to networks and subnets in a computer network is further complicated by the existence of several IP versions, such as IP version 4 (IPv4) and IP version 6 (IPv6). Because the IP address space of IPv6 is substantially larger than the IP address space of IPv4, many networks, subnets and hosts in the Internet are slowly being migrated from IPv4 to IPv6. Moreover, these networks, subnets and hosts may require both IPv4 IP addresses and IPv6 IP addresses during the migration from IPv4 to IPv6.
In light of the above, there exists a need to manage IP addresses for a computer network. Additionally, there exists a need to manage IP addresses of multiple IP versions for the computer network.